THE ECON & FIN OF SPORTS

Catalog description

This course is designed for two purposes: to use sports to deepen our understanding of economics and financial markets and to use economics and financial markets to deepen our understanding of sports. There is a vast array of topics that we will cover including attendance modeling, salary structure, salary caps, financing of stadiums, tournament structure, competitive balance, doping in sports, gambling markets, etc. Key economic principles covered include supply and demand, industrial organization, price theory, labor markets, salary determination and discrimination, tournament theory, Coase Theorem, and game theory. Financial principles covered include financing of sports teams in different leagues, public vs private financing of stadiums, efficient markets hypothesis, and behavioral finance. We will cover historical topics and address current events. Students will participate in class discussion, read economic papers on sports, and give short presentations on the articles they read.